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Show Garkane Settlement Draws Ire Of Southern Area Board Members At Monday's meeting in Loa, Garkane Power Association's Board of Directors executed a settlement agreement with a consumer group which had filed an intervention with the Utah Public Service Commission Commis-sion (PSC). The intervention challenged chal-lenged Garkane's application with the PSC for approval of a $4.5 million mil-lion loan from the cooperative's bankers. The settlement which was signed at the meeting "provides (according to a news release from Garkane's Richfield office on Tuesday) that funds from the loaa will not be used to finance, study or support a principal office relocation or for construction of new office facilities at Hatch or Loa. The settlement," the release continued, "speaks only to the current loan application." The contents of the news release angered several board members who challenged its accuracy. It states that the settlement also revokes the Board's May 1998 resolution which directed the cooperative's management to proceed pro-ceed with a Richfield Headquarters Office Closure Plan. The settlement, settle-ment, according to the release, "provides that the Board 'will not undertake to change the principal place of business without necessary approvals.'" Back in Hatch on Tuesday, Board Member Hugh Wilson said, "That's exactly what I was worried about - out of context quotes." Wilson abstained in the Monday vote, "...because," he said, "I was concerned that the language of the settlement would be misconstrued or misquoted to indicate that the office removal from Richfield is a dead issue." Wilson said Tuesday's news release confirmed his fears but "Let me assure you that the move issue is not dead." Other directors contacted by the Garfield County News also seemed unaware of the news release. The vote, according to Garkane General Manager Carl Albrecht, was four in favor of the settlement, two against, and one abstention. LaDon Torgersen, Koosharem; George Blackburn, Fremont; Michael Blackburn, Bicknell; and Marjie Lee Spencer, Escalante voted in favor; Terry Griffiths, Orderville and Niel Biggs, Duck Creek voted against; and Hugh Wilson abstained. Director Nolan Button, Kanab, was ill and unable to attend the meeting. Wilson, who has been criticized in the past by some board members for expressing his opinions publicly public-ly about Garkane's issues was particularly angered because, he said, contrary to board policy, the news release was not agreed upon by board members. "I'm appalled that someone either from the board or our Richfield office staff has assumed the authority to speak for the board when that authority has explicitly been reserved by the board for agreement among all board members," he said. Wilson said he intends to find out who is responsible for its release. The three board members who did not favor the settlement all had strong opinions about it and agreed they did not have sufficient time to study the terms of the settlement which they had not seen prior to the meeting. All said they felt pressure (See SETTLEMENT on page 2-A) SETTLEMENT From Front Page to agree to it to reduce the higher interest rates the cooperative had been forced into by the intervention. inter-vention. Wilson said that Richfield Reaper Publisher Mark "Fuellenbach "Fuellen-bach and those who signed the intervening petition before the PSC have, through the legal maneuvering maneu-vering of their attorney, continued to hold our cooperative hostage to the detriment of the cooperative. "They have done this by holding up the PSC approval of Garkane's loan application, thus causing Garkane to have to draw down on its credit line which is a higher interest rate. "They have done so even after the board withdrew the application for a building loan. The board was not aware that a loan for building an office building was being submitted until after the fact. Mr. Albrecht's Richfield Office Closure Plan stated that the office could be built out of current reserves. "Mr. Fuellenbach has tried to use PSC leverage to force the board to say that we will drop the move issue and will never again consider moving the office from Richfield." Duck Creek Board Member Niel Biggs said, "My understanding at the meeting was that this agreement dealt only with the loan and does not preclude moneys from other sources being used to relocate. "It does not say we cannot come up with another plan and financing with other money. "The interveners have caused the loan to be delayed and caused Garkane to use financial reserves at a higher interest rate. Consequently, Consequent-ly, there was undue pressure on the board to reach agreement with their attorney and get the loan approved to reduce interest rates." In Orderville, Director Terry Griffiths said, "I asked our general manager about the $1 million figure cited to move the office out of Richfield. I thought it was way too high and he reassured me that the money could be used for other projects as well. "We're a conservative board we'd never spend that kind of money to relocate the office. "If I'd known the self-serving businessmen of Richfield would try to blackmail us by filing an intervention with the PSC, I would have tried to persuade the other board members to reduce the figure to a more sensible amount. "The intervenors' selfish actions have cost Garkane money, delayed the loan, and pressured the board to make a hasty decision to try to save additional interest." Board President La Don Torgersen and Board Member George Blackburn were out of town and unavailable for comment. Board Member Marjie Lee Spencer, who voted in favor of the agreement, said she had not received a copy of the news release prior to its dissemination to local news media, but said confidently, "If Carl Albrecht sent the news release I'm sure it was all Tight and proper." Asked for further comment, she said she is "terribly leery of the newspapers" and declined to talk further. Board Member Michael Blackburn Black-burn said the board "had to agree to the settlement to move on with the loan." He said, "The lawyer told us that the paragraph about revoking the May 1998 board resolution had to be a part of the settlement" or it would not go through. Blackburn said, "It didn't matter anyway because there is no money to make the move of the office headquarters. If they want to still do the move, they'll have to start over from scratch." Attempts by the Garfield County News to obtain the names of those signing with Fuellenbach on the intervention met with frustration. An earlier telephone request left with their attorney met with no response and no one in the Garkane office could supply the list. Fuellenbach said on Tuesday there are 14 or 15 individuals involved in the consumer group that initially filed the intervention with the PSC. Asked who they were or if they were businessmen he responded "they are Garkane consumers." Fuellenbach said they filed the intervention because they felt the original actions taken by the board with respect to moving Garkane offices were neither proper nor legal. Told that several of the board members were unaware of the news release distributed to the media Tuesday by Garkane, Fuellenbach said that as a litigant he was aware of the outcome of the Garkane board meeting yesterday and told Garkane he would be printing the outcome in his paper this week. He said that Board President LaDon Torgersen then instructed Carl Albrecht to prepare the news release. Asked why the setdement language had to revoke the resolution of May 1998, Fuellenbach Fuellen-bach responded that it didn't matter if that language was included because there was no money for the move anyway. He said if they still want the move they are going to have to take it back to the membership. The Garkane news release stated that proceeds of the new loan will be used to make a variety of system improvements, including transmission transmis-sion lines, substations and distribution distribu-tion lines designed to increase the efficiency of its service to member-consumers member-consumers throughout Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. |
